Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1877 — Gibraltar. [ARTICLE]

Gibraltar.

Gibraltar formore than a hundred and seventy years has been in a condition to defy any attack from any quarter. It is a mass of solid gray marble, connected with the southern extremity of Spanish Andalusia by a narrow peninsula which is entirely commanded by the fortress. This rock—at its highest point 1,439 feet above the level of the sea—is completely honey-combed with batteries, bomb-proofs, and every species of defensive contrivance. Cannon of the largest caliber frown along its face, steep escarps bar all the paths up the almost perpendicular ascent, immense cisterns ana magazines furnish abundant supplies of water and ammunition, and there is always a sufficient stock of provisions to last three years. The ordinaiy garrison consists of about 5,000 infantry, 1,000 artillery, and a picked corps of engineers; and in case of emergency there are accommodations for double this force. The last and most memorable siege Gibraltar has endured began in June, 1779, and ended in February, 1783. . The combined armies and fleets of France and Spain pounded the impregnable walls in vein for three years and eight months, and then gave up the hopeless task. The British lost 382 killed, 536 from disease, 43 from desertion, and the wounded numbered 1,008. The casualties on the other side are not known. . Since then there has been no attempt to rob England of her priceless possession—a possession, by the way, of which she robbed Spain. The present strengthening ,of Gibraltar means that England does not intend to be “ caught napping,” and that the Government does not know how soon this matchless citadel may be needed as a base of active operations in the Mediterranean and the further East. Louis XIV. threat-, ened to turn the tideless sea into ** a French lake; ” Alexander, if he had the opportunity, would gladly make it a Russian lake; but as long as England holds Gibraltar—the key of the western door—the Mediterranean is, to all intents and purposes, an’ English lake.— Chicago Tience.